skyking162

This might be the ultimate in self-aggrandizement, but I don’t care. I want to watch Daisuke pitch, and typing will keep my hands busy. I’m not promising a Chuck Klosterman level of mind-blowing pop culture references or a word count that approaches a throw-off Bill Simmons blog entry. But I bet I can I keep it up through at least 2.5 innings. Ok, maybe 2.

2:12
Ok, I missed the first batter of the game typing up that introduction — it was probably the ESPN links that put me over the edge. Evidently Julio Lugo made an out. He’s bound to do that a lot this year. I read part of an article recently that criticized Lugo as a “sabermetric darling”. Um, no. Lugo’s probably overrated, mostly due to overperforming for the Rays last year. But he’s no JD Drew.

2:20
For me, this game has TWO intriguing starting pitcher story lines. Zach Greinke’s recovery from mental issues is a huge personal victory for him, and could become a top national story if he can fulfill even 75% of the potential he showed two years ago. Greinke’s impressive spring motivated me to throw a few bucks his way in my fantasy league. I’m rooting for him.

2:29
I always thought Esteban German’s last name was pronounced “jer-mane”. Evidently it’s “her-mon”. Every time the KC announcers say “Her-mon” I think of the Arrested Development Hermano episode. Great show.

2:38
Three strikeouts for Greinke already, all looking.

If Pedroia succeeds in the majors, will he get the David Eckstein treatment? Dustin swings pretty damn hard every time, but hits for average instead of power — in other words, he hits like Eckstein throws. If the Sox win the World Series, will Pedroia’s heart and determination receive the all the credit?

2:42
Alex Gordon: 0-7 with 4 K’s. Overrated? Time to move Teahen back to third? With that pop-out he’s now 0-8. No player who started their rookie season 0-10 has ever gone on to hit 500 HRs, so these next two ABs are critical. (For those bad at figuring out written sarcasm — which I’m learning is 90% of the non-Kalkman population — the preceding paragraph was tongue-in-cheek.)

Dice-K’s got some nice pre-pitch hip-thrust action.

Back to relevant commentary next half-inning…

2:49
Great close-ups of the two starters releasing their change-ups. Daisuke straddles the ball with his middle and ring fingers, while Greinke’s middle finger is directly on top of the ball. I wonder how much a grip without the index finger affects a major leaguer’s control? Maybe it’s not as important since most change-ups land in the dirt anyway.

2:57
Manny’s going with the Ricky Williams’ coif, I see — somewhere between the Dolphin Dreds and whatever you call the homeless-and-smoking-pot-in-southeast-Asia look. Awesome. (My intro paragraph was correct — if Klosterman was writing this, he’d know the perfect rock star to compare with Manny. And it would fit not just because of the hair, but also because of some childhood trauma and his pattern of ex-girlfriends. This is why I’m no Chuck Klosterman.

3:07
The Royals announcers have now compared Daisuke to David Cone twice in three innings, and I’m still not sure what their point is. The second time they also managed to diss the Japanese for lacking personality.

Greinke just allowed the leadoff batter to reach base for the third straight inning. So far none have scored, the only run coming in the first with two outs. Again, Greinke strands the lead-off runner and runs his strikeouts total to five through four innings.

3:26
Just had to restart my computer because it had slowed to a crawl. Looks like I missed a quick inning by Daisuke.

A quick perusal of the other afternoon scores shows the Indians beating the White Sox yet again. I don’t often root against teams, but I despise the White Sox. Bold statement: Chicago will finish last in the Central, behind even the Royals.

Do you think Greinke just enjoys the challenge of giving up leadoff hits and then getting the next three hitters out? Maybe he’s just that good from the stretch?

Anyone want to bet that David Ortiz doesn’t go down looking for a third straight time? (If I was Frank, I’d say he’s due to crank one.) Nope, Greinke got him again — Ortiz couldn’t quite check his swing. Damn impressive.

Can I admit something? I can’t tell one bit how good a pitcher is by watching him throw pitches. Maybe I’m exaggerating — I notice the difference betwee breaking balls that break a lot or just hang. I notice when pitchers throw a lot of strikes at the edges of the zone. And I notice pitchers that get batters to chase a lot of balls way out of the strike zone. But I have no idea why some pitchers can get batters to chase pitches and others can’t. I don’t have any clue why hitters crush Jeff Weaver’s fastballs more consistently than John Lackey’s. And don’t even get me started on good mechanics versus bad mechanics. These are the things I would like to learn from color commentators and professional writers. These are the things color commentators and professional writers fail to explain.

3:43
MLB.tv has gone silent. Combined with the fact that it pauses every couple seconds, I’m not sure how much longer I can “watch” this game.

4:17
It got to the point where I could either watch the streaming feed or type brilliant analysis. I opted for the former until the skipping frames gave me a headache. The radio feed is working out a lot smoother and I can get back to writing now.

I’m trying to decide if Greinke’s outing today was overrated or underrated. On one hand, he gave up four doubles among eight hits, including one off the wall that could have been a homerun. He’s fortunate only to be charged with one earned run. On the other hand, Greinke’s struck out seven, walked one, and hasn’t actually allowed a homerun. Two hits were of the infield variety, knocked down by a diving Alex Gordon, and most of the balls in play were kept on the ground. Given that he’s pitching against a strong Red Sox lineup, I’m leaning towards calling it an excellent outing and allowing myself to get excited. Zach Greinke for Cy Young!

Daisuke hasn’t been bad, either. Without the caught stealing in the seventh he’d probably have given up a couple additional runs. But you can’t argue with a 10/1 K/BB ratio, even against the Royals.

We’ve arrived at the point of the game where the Royals’ bullpen makes Greinke’s strong outing completely irrelevant by giving up somewhere between three and six runs. Which is, coincidentally, the point of the game where I start watching another one. Thanks for reading, Chuck.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 5th, 2007 at 2:04 pm and is filed under Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.